Thulium iron garnet (TmIG) films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) were grown on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) (111) substrates by off-axis sputtering. High-resolution synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction studies and spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (Cs-corrected STEM) images showed the excellent crystallinity of the films and their sharp interface with GGG. Damping constant of TmIG thin film was determined to be 0.0133 by frequency-dependent ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. The saturation magnetization (M) and the coercive field (H) were obtained systematically as a function of the longitudinal distance (L) between the sputtering target and the substrate. A 170% enhancement of PMA field (H) was achieved by tuning the film composition to increase the tensile strain. Moreover, current-induced magnetization switching on a Pt/TmIG structure was demonstrated with an ultra-low critical current density (j) of 2.5 × 10 A/cm, an order of magnitude smaller than the previously reported value. We were able to tune M, H and H to obtain an ultra-low j of switching the magnetization, showing the great potential of sputtered TmIG films for spintronics.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6056423PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29493-5DOI Listing

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